Chapter 364 The Mastermind

In the dimly lit area, which resembled a movie theater audience, Fa Zheng appeared as if it were the most natural thing in the world and sat down next to me, watching the large screen showing the various aspects of life at the Luoshan headquarters with me.

This is merely a space I've imagined in my mind; this Fazheng, however, isn't something I've conjured up. He's most likely observing the changes at Luoshan headquarters from somewhere there, because we're doing the same thing without prior arrangement, creating a phenomenon akin to telepathy. What appears to me as a movie theater audience might be a completely different scene to him, or perhaps it's nothing at all; he's simply establishing a mental connection with me.

"My thoughts..." I thought for a moment and then said, "I feel that the witchers and agents at headquarters don't get along very well."

"To be precise, it's more like 'incompatible'," Fa Zheng said. "It was my idea and the one that led to the large-scale introduction of agents to headquarters to take on some of the work."

"The goal of governance is to achieve harmonious coexistence between demon hunters and ordinary people. If we can't even achieve this within Luoshan, it's even more impossible to extend it to the whole society. So I want to try it out at headquarters first."

"And the result is as you can see... Although I did anticipate this outcome, seeing it in person still left me feeling somewhat disappointed."

Since this outcome has already been calculated, there was no need to implement it in the first place, and even less reason to have any expectations. Although I had this thought, I am not actually unable to understand Fazheng's motives.

Many witchers look down on ordinary people because ordinary people are weak and capable of far less than they are. However, sometimes the gap between witchers is even greater than the gap between a witcher and an ordinary person. Therefore, even powerful witchers may look down on ordinary witchers.

If one reaches the realm of Great Impermanence and then looks back at the demon hunters in the formation, existence, decay, and emptiness hierarchy, one might even feel that these people are no different from ordinary people. Only those who have reached the Great Completion level are worth a second glance. But how many people are there at the Great Completion level?

Watching the Witcher group talk about "how different they are from ordinary people" didn't stir any emotion in me at all. It made me vaguely realize that not only did the worldview depicted by the pacifist movement have fatal flaws, but the worldview depicted by the transcendentalist movement also seemed to have fatal flaws somewhere.

Since I feel that the demon hunters are no different from ordinary people, Fazheng probably feels the same way. Therefore, even though I rationally understand that it is impossible to put the two together, I am still driven by the emotion of "you are no different anyway" and I will try to put them together for the time being.

"However, failure is not without its benefits. Unlike this one practice, where even the specific problems cannot be summarized, let's take over these problems as our next step."

Fa Zheng seemed to have found a positive direction and then got to the point: "Zhuang Cheng, you seem to have recovered quite a bit. I'd like to talk to you about some serious matters. Is that a convenient time for you?"

“I also have some important things I want to talk to you about,” I said.

“Then let’s start with your matter,” Fa Zheng said. “What you want to talk to me about is the Humanitarian Affairs Department, right?”

"Your friend Zhu Chang'an is the incarnation of the fox demon Yin Yue, and also the living sacrifice necessary for Ying Lingyun to resurrect Yin Yue, and you want to save him. Since he is not with you now, he must be with Ying Lingyun."

“Fufeng submitted a report to me about you in the past. Based on your words, actions and important judgments so far, it can be concluded that although you have common sense, you seriously lack a sense of morality and ethics, and you don’t care about worldly interests. You might even do things that seriously violate your own interests or even your own life and safety when driven by passion…”

"However, you value relationships exceptionally much. The fact that someone as unruly and wild as you can live a law-abiding life in ordinary society to this day is probably partly due to consideration for your friends' opinions. Therefore, when a friend is in crisis, you would never stand idly by... Am I right?"

“Since you’ve already come to this point, I’ll be frank,” I said. “I want to know which of the Humanitarian Affairs Bureau’s locations he’s currently being held at, and exactly where that location is.”

“Sure, I’ll help you,” Fa Zheng said without hesitation. “But you need to be prepared. This Yin Yue might have already been killed by Ying Lingyun as a living sacrifice to resurrect the real Yin Yue.”

"Chang'an is still alive, I'm certain of that," I said with certainty.

The thermal energy signal remaining in Silvermoon's body is still there. I just can't use this signal to teleport to the Humanitarian Division's outpost where Silvermoon is, but I can still get a sense of her current condition to some extent.

I could vaguely sense that her soul was being repaired. Just as I had guessed, Ying Lingyun wouldn't use Yin Yue, whose soul was in a damaged state, as a living sacrifice, because Yin Yue in this state was not fit to be a living sacrifice.

Conversely, once Silvermoon is cured, that will be her death day.

Silver Moon could certainly choose to fight or flee, but Ying Lingyun could manipulate the power of the Divine Seal Fragments. On his home turf, even Silver Moon couldn't simply run away, making the chances of winning the battle even lower.

“Since you insist, I won’t say any more. I will inform you on the eve of the official start of the extermination campaign,” Fa Zheng said. “This is just a small favor for me. I originally planned to thoroughly investigate all of the Humanitarian Division’s strongholds and wipe them all out.”

"Is it because of the existence of the Void Realm Apostle, Xu Gou? Do you believe that because the Humanity Division has hatched a new Great Impermanence, it must be completely eliminated from this world...?" I asked.

"No... the Dog is not important."

Fa Zheng was surprisingly indifferent to Xu Gou. He shook his head to interrupt, and said, "I already found the current Humanitarian Affairs Bureau to be a nuisance. Xu Gou's appearance only spurred my resolve. Even without Xu Gou, I would have eliminated the Humanitarian Affairs Bureau soon."

I asked in surprise, "The Humanitarian Department has hatched a new Great Impermanence... Isn't this important?"

"The reason Luoshan values ​​the Humanity Division so much is because they have a one in a billion chance of discovering a stable method for creating Great Impermanence through technological means. Therefore, once the Humanity Division hatches its first Great Impermanence, Luoshan will definitely eliminate it with overwhelming force... Is that what you think? Putting everything else aside for now, the Dog of the Dog can't be considered a successful case for the Humanity Division," Fazheng said. "That Great Impermanence was created using the power of the Divine Seal fragments, not through the power of human wisdom. As an individual, although powerful, it is not enough to signal the emergence of an unprecedented enemy for Luoshan."

"Did you know that the Dog (戌狗) became the Great Impermanence (大无常) through a fragment of the Divine Seal?" I asked.

"Of course I know," Fa Zheng said calmly.

Oh, right, I almost forgot. Fu Feng heard from a senior researcher that a "black jade stone" had been implanted in Xu Gou's body, and he probably reported this information to Fa Zheng as well. Fa Zheng was secretly collecting fragments of the Divine Seal, and there was one in Fu Feng's base, so of course he knew what a Divine Seal fragment looked like...

Just as I was thinking of this, Fang Zheng suddenly changed the subject and revealed a shocking secret: "Because the Humanitarian Affairs Department is an organization that I supported."

"—What?" I exclaimed in surprise.

The Humanitarian Division's philosophy is to create super soldiers capable of rivaling the Witchers, thereby overthrowing Roshan's future rule; but ultimately, it hopes to create an order in which the Witcher community submits to the management of mortal society.

Luo Shan, on the other hand, hoped to establish a social order dominated by the demon hunter community.

These two forces are clearly in conflict from the ground up, so how could Fazheng be the mastermind behind supporting the Humanitarian Affairs Bureau? How is that possible? Why?

Wait... I've misunderstood something.

Fazheng, a being of such great impermanence, transcends Luoshan; therefore, Luoshan's ideology is insufficient to govern him. If, in Fazheng's view, Luoshan is merely a tool, then the Humanitarian Affairs Bureau is simply another tool.

Just as Fa Zheng and I see no difference between the demon hunters and agents of Luoshan, what difference could Fa Zheng possibly make between Luoshan, representing the demon hunter community, and the Humanitarian Division, representing the mortal community?

“Actually, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with letting ordinary people manage the Witchers,” Fa Zheng said. “It’s just that Witchers are indeed stronger than ordinary people in every aspect, so I think it’s more reasonable for Witchers to lead ordinary people.”

"That being said, my ideas are not necessarily perfect. The Humanitarian Division is my initial attempt in another direction. If the Humanitarian Division can prove that a model based on ordinary people is better for human civilization, I would not mind integrating into this order in the future and becoming a member of it."

(End of this chapter)